Sunday 14 April 2019

barbed whiskey good and whiskey straight

Via our fabulously peripatetic friends Nag on the Lake and Miss Cellania, we are regaled with one of Botnik Studios (previously) latest endeavour—though perhaps not of the same calibre of the algorithm that’s recently been awarded with a record deal, at least not yet—a collaboration between human singers and a robot songwriter, trained on all the popular tropes of Country and Western music, has resulted in a catchy but non sequitir number called “You Can’t Take My Door.”

Saturday 13 April 2019

breakfast of champions

One of the intermediate achievements to come out of a four-decade experiment of The Land Institute’s founders Wes and Dana Jackson was trialled earlier this week before a body of scientists, conservationists and environmental activists in the form of a cereal milled from the grain of a perennial wheat, domesticated through a series of cross-breeding (see also) to make a potentially useful food crop out of wild prairie grasses.
Calling their cultivar Kernza, the team hopes to transform and invert the way industrial agriculture affects the environment and ecosystem as an enduring part of an environment that admits cohabitation rather than a seasonal interloper that requires energy intensive replanting year after year and causes a large degree of collateral damage despite its otherwise shallow impact.  In comparison, seasonal farming practises seem like a scorched earth campaign, with pesticides, erosion, vast expanses of monoculture that does not allow for a degree of diversity and the act of tilling itself that releases a bigger share of carbon dioxide than most other human enterprises.  Learn more at the links above.

you deserve a break today

Referred by Coudal Partners’ Fresh Signals, we get a glimpse of the direction a fast food giant could have taken towards mellower, harvest palette instead of the signature red and gold, which supposedly stimulates the appetite, thanks to some recently recovered 1973 (also the same year as the introduction of the Egg McMuffin) marketing proofs from Unimark International. The alternate look reminds us of the iconic Sainsbury’s store brand. The design archives of McDonald’s and other anchor lines are being researched and curated by the Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

basicode

Previously we’ve explored how computer games and software applications were in the early 1980s broadcast over the airwaves for recording and executing with Bristol’s Radio West’s Datarama, and now thanks to Amusing Planet we learn that there was a parallel effort underway in the Netherlands with the state public service radio NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting) transmitting code as well. Hobbyscoop was one popular programme for early computer enthusiasts and while the first few episodes were for specific models of computers, the Apple-2 or the Exidy Sorcerer, the producers had the idea to make the content offered more universal by standardising the format, broadcasting BASIC language programmes and installing each computer with a translation programme to interpret the ASCII representation into its native machine language. Radio stations across Europe were quick to start doing the same. Much more to explore at the links above.

voight-kampff test

Sort of in the same way utopia signifies no place, the concept of empathy—derived from the Ancient Greek for compassion via the German term Einfühlung (feeling into) and now in modern Greek ฮตฮผฯ€ฮฌฮธฮตฮนฮฑ indicates malice, there are appreciable facets and nuances to the capacity to put oneself in another’s shoes.
Failure to understand how what’s become in the course of a generation an article of faith is a new way of framing our beliefs and values is susceptible to misuse, obfuscation and delusion—especially considering the received-narrative and our obligation as social beings—can quickly turn the better parts of empathy to tribalism, much like child-rearing admits the imbalance of helicopter parenting, Tiger Moms or neglect, and leave individuals more entrenched and dedicated to right the wrongs visited on those like them.  Without the need to repair or restore to short-hand or signalling, engage in a profound exploration of the topic below.

Friday 12 April 2019

waschbรคr

On this day in 1934, forester William, Baron Sittich of Berlepsch, at the request of the animals’ keeper, poultry farmer Rolf Haag, released two pairs of raccoons into the nature reserve Edersee-Kellerwald, in what turned out to be the ideal environment for them—several earlier attempts to introduce the North American export to Europe having failed.
The forester’s effort to “enrich the native fauna” was not exactly sanctioned as official permission from the Prussian authorities came weeks later, and raccoons have seen a rise in population climbing to an estimated million across Germany presently. The extent that the successful, invasive species (Neozoon) threatens biodiversity is a point of contention, most regarding their uncontrolled spread as disastrous, endangering native birds and edging out competition from domestic carnivores by their strength in numbers.

heilkunde

Using the principles of divination and radiesthesia to guide her hand, Swiss spiritual healer and outsider artist Emma Kunz (*1892 - †1963) did not necessarily cultivate her art for art’s sake but rather as an expression and heuristic tool for exploring belief and to engender healing. Viewing these curated works on loan from the Emma Kunz Zentrum in Wรผrenlos in Aargau is nonetheless still visually compelling and with symbolism and geometric harmonies to prise an insight from, the meditative qualities come through.
The site of the centre dedicated to conserving Kunz’ drawings and teaching is also the location of a Roman quarry (Grotto) where Kunz discovered a mineral she believed held restorative properties—naming it AION A, from the Greek for “limitless.” The benches for the exhibit were specially hewn from this stone and pulverised AION A is available from Swiss apothecaries. More to explore with Hyperallergic at the link above.

yuri’s night

This anniversary (also Cosmonautics Day, ะ”ะตะฝัŒ ะบะพัะผะพะฝะฐะฒั‚ะธะบะธ) of the first human to cross the barrier into outer space on this day in 1961, when the Vostok 1 was piloted by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (*1934 – †1968, previously), is an international celebration of achievements in space exploration. This World Space Party includes outreach and education and are hosted in various venues across the globe, including schools, museums and planetariums. The first NASA space shuttle mission, Columbia (STS-1), took off on the twentieth anniversary of Vostok 1 in 1981, though this coincidence was not intended as the launch was delayed due to bad weather conditions.