debunked

The reliably engrossing and entertaining Futility Closet delivers with its latest podcast episode a real object lesson in sociology confirmed with real world observations that really lay bare the concept of cognitive dissonance and how it infiltrates the human psyche.
Not only are we loathe to acknowledge sunk costs and move away from a system of belief that we’ve invested a lot or a little in, we also seek to justify our fear and trepidation, confident that ritual was our saving grace. Infiltrating a doomsday cult that arose as Leon Festinger (*1919 – †1989) and his academic colleagues were theorising about how the human mind copes with the chasm between expectation and reality and the behaviour that manifests in the mid-1950s, their ideas that were a sharp departure from the received wisdom of accounting for hysteria and panic but were vindicated through a mental narrative of members reframing the failure of their dire prophesies to materialise. Festinger was also a pioneer in networking theory, coining the term propinquity (from the Latin for nearness—and by extension familiarity) in kinship-forming and establishing in- and out-groups, which is now of course not limited by physical presence.

ultra vires

The US state of Washington have introduced legislation (pending debate in the chamber) that would make the Sasquatch the official state cryptid. While on the surface, it’s hard to deny the bill and ceremony as frivolous, we are all for people paying more attention to the environment and the ecosystem by any means necessary—including belief in Bigfoot (relatedly), which I think resonates as an extension of heightened awareness over the effects of humans encroaching on the wild places of the Earth.
There are marketing and fund-raising opportunities to consider besides. National and sub-national symbols can of course be politically and ideologically charged items—notably with the contention surround the selection of state fossils for places that ascribe to Creationism. Read more about the bill at Lowering the Bar at the link up top. Do you have local legendary beasts you’d care to nominate for inscription into officialdom? We would support designating the habitat of chupacabras under threat if that helped prevent that awful massive monument to white nationalism planned for the US southern border.

lido deck

In addition to knowing how to keep their owners’ yachts ship-safe and seaworthy, captains and crews now expected to have better than rudimentary knowledge when it custody of priceless works of art.
As Super Punch informs, there’s a trend among the ultra-wealth to keep their masterpieces on board, prompting conservators to instruct shipmates on the art protection and preservation. While it is ostensibly better that the work is enjoyed rather than locked away as a store of value, it does seem to court disaster and a quick means to bring about ruination.

open access

We enjoyed perusing the curated, select gallery of some of the highlights from a trove of over thirty-four thousand artworks and artefacts that the venerable Cleveland Museum of Art has just released to the public wholly royalty-free and without restrictions.
While such proclamations are common-place and some may doubt their newsworthiness—arguing that the institution is just catching up with a movement that ought to have been universally practised long ago, but such events are not just laudable but also a gateway to explore and inspect a happily crowded field. Take this image—for example, of Nathaniel Olds by local resident Jeptha Homer Wade, an itinerate portrait painter whose interest and salesmanship grew out of experiments with early daguerreotypy and synthesised into an interest in the burgeoning technology of the telegraph. The industrialist and eventual philanthropist, benefactor of many educational and cultural institutions as was the exhibiting museum itself, was one of the foundered of Western Union. We’ve yet to uncover anything about the subject—however. Much more to explore at the links above.

the day the music died

On this evening in 1959, a chartered 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza (the six-seater light aircraft still in production, making it the longest continuously distributed model in history), took off in blizzard conditions from the Mason City Municipal Airport, piloted by Roger Peterson. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed into cornfield outside of neighbouring Clear Lake, Iowa, killing the pilot and compliment of passengers, Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper—J P Richardson.

la fête de la chandeleur

While parts of the world are obsessing with weather prognosis as determined by a groundhog, in France (and other Francophone parts, I’m sure) Candlemas (the presentation of Jesus at the Temple,
inducting the infant into the Jewish faith and community) is attended with the Festival des Chandelles. In addition to a rainy day (quand ii pleut) signalling further forty more days of stormy weather (depending on who you ask), the days is also marked by making crêpes and galettes, which symbolise the waxing Sun, harking back to pre-Christian syncretism, and the coming spring after a long winter.