στην πόλη

The Turkish government on this day in 1930 changed the name of its largest city from Constantinople to İstanbul—the ancient metropolis having formerly been known as New Rome, Augusta Antonina, Byzantium and originally Lygos—and recall us to contemporary name changes we’ve encountered recently.
Whereas the reflagging of İstanbul strips it of historical associations, the people of Kyrgyz are considering renaming its capital from Bishkek to Manas, a legendary warrior whose exploits are sung in an epic poem that contains half a million verses and is a cultural touchstone for Kyrgyz identity. Some speculate that this debate was sparked by adjacent Kazakhstan’s decision to rename its capital Astana (formerly Tselinograd and founded as Akmoly) to Nur-Sultan in honour of long-serving president Nursultan Äbishuly Nazarbayev on the occasion of his retirement.

divine wind

I learned a historic detail about cherry blossoms that is a bit morose and melancholy from the excellent podcast series Short-Cuts, in the flowering trees’ association with kamikaze pilots during World War II. A parable was told young aviators that they were to aspire to be fearless and unflinching in their sacrifice like the cherry blossoms who live a short but glorious life and fall from the branches without clinging. Women would wave farewell to departing Zeros with cherry blossom branches and “volunteer” pilots composed long elaborate death poem—following the tradition of the samurai and ritual seppuku. Now go here for some happier, meditative traditions connected to this time of year.

it has become easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism

In his The Disorder of Things, philosopher Fredric Jameson made the above observation with the public beaten down by endless rhetoric that there is no alternative to liberal market economies and that green movements are unrealistic.
Now that the US Senate has cynically (and in a cringe-worthy fashion—sh*tposting the chamber with a deliberate, aggressively ironic provocation of minimal effort that derailed any possibility of meaningful debate) rejected moving forward on comprehensive climate legislation, we globally are lurched a step closer to experiencing both scenarios. Such squabbling minimises the urgency for radical action and leaves us with less time to affect change before time runs out.

unterwegs

Taken while driving home last week—if you look closely in the centre of the image, there’s a hot air balloon in the distance directly under the end of the vapour trail in the sky.

sakoku

Within a couple decades after Commodore Perry compelled Japan to open its doors to the West with the Treaty of Shimoda, Japanese society was beginning to relax its taboos against the consumption of meat other than seafood signalled by Emperor Mutsuhito’s 1872 New Year’s repast of beef—which caused much consternation among devout Buddhists who had helped cultivate the prohibition for over twelve centuries.
The Meiji administration changed its policy of isolation and was eager to adopt Western ways and technologies, effectively rescinding a decree from Emperor Tenmu in the seventh century not to eat useful animals during the farming season, which came to be a general avoidance (a heavy penance was put in place or transgression) for practical reasons as well as the belief in transmigration of the soul and the chance that would could be reincarnated as a cow or boar.

duck pond town

Seeing this news brief about how Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan in the southwest, is directing real estate developers to avoid foreign, strange and particularly repetitive place names in order to promote historical and cultural heritage made me think of the phenomenon of pleonasms and tautological (同義反覆) toponymy.
Thousands of properties might be affected and need new signage to be in compliance. I realise that the regulation is probably meant to halt the profusion of centres and towers, but it also might be aimed at curbing repetition that comes systematically in translation, like in the case of the Yunling Mountains (the Cloudy Mountains Mountains), Jiayugun Pass (Jiayu Pass Pass), Nathu La Pass (Listening Ears Pass Pass), or the Gobi Desert (the Desert Desert).

inherent authority

The intrepid investigators at Muckrock publish a good primer on FOIA code and provides explanations on federal rules of criminal procedure that could potentially block the release of large portions of the Mueller Report and how those exemptions might be appealed in the courts. Given that the language of Freedom of Information Act requests are often composed—in this case especially—with potential lawsuits in mind and informed by the challenge of the high bar set for disclosure, the article also links to preliminary requests filed earlier and still pending adjudication.

fraunhofer-gesellschaft

Named in honour of nineteenth century entrepreneur, physicist and lens-crafter who pioneered stellar spectrometry Joseph Ritter von Fraunhofer said to embody the goals and philosophy of association, the society for the advancement of applied science was founded in München on this day in 1949.
The largest research organisation in Europe, it has seventy-two campuses spread throughout Germany and an international presence with institutions in North and South America and Asia. The organisation is funded through the so-called Fraunhofer Model which sources thirty percent of its budget to state support and the rest in contracted fees for conducting research and development at the behest of industry and government commissions—notable projects including developing the mp3 file format and an algorithm to reassemble shredded documents.