We were temporarily in denial about the images circulating—courtesy of the US Department of Health and Human Services—of the Trump mural prominently displayed in a detention centre for young boys housed in a former Wal-Mart in Texas, wishing it weren’t true but knowing deep down that there is not irony too dumb or cruel for that regime who are presently defending separating some of the same adolescents from their families by citing a Bible passage that was also used to justify slavery. The quotation on the mural—helpfully bilingual—is from the book ghost-written for the sub-literate slob The Art of the Deal, chapter ten, seemingly to inculcate the youths with aspirations for the American Dream shortly before their deportation.
Friday 15 June 2018
low rent, high stakes
We were temporarily in denial about the images circulating—courtesy of the US Department of Health and Human Services—of the Trump mural prominently displayed in a detention centre for young boys housed in a former Wal-Mart in Texas, wishing it weren’t true but knowing deep down that there is not irony too dumb or cruel for that regime who are presently defending separating some of the same adolescents from their families by citing a Bible passage that was also used to justify slavery. The quotation on the mural—helpfully bilingual—is from the book ghost-written for the sub-literate slob The Art of the Deal, chapter ten, seemingly to inculcate the youths with aspirations for the American Dream shortly before their deportation.
8x8
i’m ready for my close-up: a selection of vintage Hollywood test shots
emeco: a look at the indestructible chair commissioned by the US navy in 1940 that could withstand the blast of a torpedo
columbo: US ambassador to the Holy See, Callista Gingrinch, returns a pilfered letter penned by Christopher Columbus to the Vatican Library
fjallkona: Iceland picks a drag queen to be its national personification, the Lady of the Mountain
flare-up: periodically the Sun erupts
jankรณ layout: an alternative keyboard to the traditional piano format
pitchforks: main-stream media is ignoring the protests of poor peoples in the US
x-ray vision: Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers harness ambient radio signals and WiFi to see through walls
Thursday 14 June 2018
signs and symptoms
Though yet to implement as far as we know, back in 2016 an exploitative ride-hailing company (previously) applied for a patent for non-invasive artificial intelligence technology that would be enlisted to distinguish drunk passengers from sober ones. What do you think about that? In theory through the passive screening process, the company would hope to mitigate undesired outcomes.
cantiche
Though well within our rights to read Purgatory and the Inferno described in Dante Alighieri’s epic poem The Divine Comedy (previously) as metaphorical there have been nonetheless earnest and noble attempts, as Open Culture informs, from the Renaissance to modern times to diagram and map out Dante’s decent, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, into the lands of the departed. Check out more charts and infographics that illustrated Dante’s vision of Hell at the link above.deep state
The always brilliant Nag on the Lake directs our attention to a very interesting Cold War chronicle, an office artefact that I’m regretting not having taken up and created during my own tenure, something reminiscent of medieval manuscripts or the Bayeux tapestry. Click the images to enlarge.
